The government of the Czech Republic has called for aid from the European Union to deal with a surge of illegal immigrant arrivals across its border reporting that illegal crossings have increased by 1,200 per cent compared to 2021.
Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan called on the European Union to do more about the illegal migration situation in central Europe and spoke out following a meeting in Bratislava of Interior Ministers from Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary.
“The European Commission must pay attention to the situation. I have asked European Commissioner Ylva Johansson to visit the Western Balkans. If we fail to reduce the flow of migrants, we will continue to address partial problems instead of causes within Schengen,” Rakušan said, Euractiv reports.
“What we are experiencing is unprecedented. The annual increase in migration in the Czech Republic is one thousand two hundred per cent. This is a situation to which we, as the Czech Republic, have had to react,” he added.
During the Bratislava meeting, the ministers agree that the external border of the European Union must be the focus to tackle issues such as organised migrant smuggling networks. Minister Rakušan also noted that it was likely his country would extend border controls on the border with Slovakia, which had been enacted last week due to the surge of illegal arrivals.
The meeting comes just days after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić met in Budapest to discuss the growing activity along the Balkan migrant route and vowed to extend Hungary’s border fence along the Serbian border as well as increase its height.
We are suffering from illegal migration, which costs time, money and energy,” Prime Minister Orbán said, while Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić added, “Serbia does not want to become a hotspot, we do not want people to stay with us.”
According to statistics from the European Union border agency Frontex, the number of migrants who have arrived in the European Union from the Balkan route has increased by 141 per cent so far this year.
“The Western Balkan route continues to be the most active migratory route into the EU with 15 900 detections in August, 141% more than last year. The high number of illegal border crossings can be attributed to repeated crossing attempts by migrants already present in the Western Balkans,” Frontex stated.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.